Language Acquisition in Children Notes

HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE
First Language Acquisition
  • Can newborn babies understand and produce speech? Children cannot comprehend or produce speech at birth.
  • When does first language learning happen? Language acquisition occurs from birth until around age 4.
  • What do children acquire? Vocabulary, grammatical rules for sentence structures, including:
    • Negatives
    • Questions
    • Relative clauses
STAGES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
  • Newborn Stage (0-2 months)
  • Infant Stage (2 months - 1 year)
  • Toddler Stage (1-4 years)
DEVELOPMENT OF SPEECH PRODUCTION
  • Stages of development:
    1. Vocalization
      • Sounds include crying, cooing, gurgling.
      • Common across all infants, including those born deaf.
    2. Babbling
      • Begins around 5 months, includes repeated syllables (e.g., "ba, di, umm").
      • Shows intonation patterns of heard language.
    3. Speech
      • Develops after babbling, becomes meaningful and intentional.
TYPES OF VOCALISATION
  • Reflexive Vocalization: e.g., cries and coughs.
  • Non-Reflexive Vocalization: e.g., playful cooing.
STAGES OF BABBLING
  • 4-6 months: Single syllable sounds (e.g., "ba, di").
  • 7-9 months: Reduplicated babbling (e.g., "mamama").
  • 10-12 months: Variegated babbling (e.g., "mata, digee").
  • 12+ months: Jargon, combining syllables with simple words (e.g., "baga po ma ball da").
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES
  • 3 months: Cooing and gurgling.
  • 6 months: Babbling.
  • 12 months: First words (single words).
  • 18 months: Vocabulary of 5-40 words.
  • 2 years: Vocabulary of 150-300 words, starts using 2-3 word sentences.
  • 3 years: 900-1,000 words, can ask short questions.
  • 4 years: Vocabulary of 2,000 words, complex sentences.
  • 5 years: Identifies letters and creates longer sentences.
ACQUISITION ORDER OF CONSONANTS AND VOWELS
  • Consonants acquired from front to back:
    • Front Consonants: e.g., /p/, /b/, /m/, /f/, /v/
    • Back Consonants follow.
  • Vowels generally acquired back to front.
EARLY SPEECH STAGES
  1. Naming: One-word utterances (first recognizable word is produced).
    • Examples: "mama," "dada."
  2. Holophrastic Function: One-word can express complex thoughts; example: "mama!!" (indicating a mother's absence).
  3. Telegraphic Speech: Two- and three-word utterances, combining nouns, verbs, and objects.
    • Example: "More milk."
    • Characteristics: Low incidence of function words; uses semantic relations without complex grammatical structures.
MORPHEME ACQUISITION
  • Development involves adding function words and inflections to utterances:
    1. Prepositions
    2. Articles
    3. Modals
    4. Auxiliaries
    5. Inflections
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPEECH PRODUCTION AND COMPREHENSION
  • Speech comprehension precedes production: Understanding language is fundamental before producing it.
  • Content of thought arises from experiences and contextual learning.
PARENTESE
  • Speech directed at infants that is characterized by:
    • Simplicity, exaggerated intonation, short syntax, and concrete vocabulary.
BABY TALK VS. PARENTESE
  • Baby Talk: More oversimplified than Parentese; culturally transmitted, involves sound modifications, and simplified vocabulary (e.g., "bow-wow" for dog).
IMITATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • Through imitation, children learn sounds but cannot construct sentences via imitation.
  • Example of grammatical inventions through overgeneralization of rules, leading to ungrammatical forms (e.g., "sheeps").
CORRECTION OF CHILD'S GRAMMAR
  • Parents often do not correct grammatical mistakes.
  • More focus on social appropriateness or truth than on grammatical correctness.
LEARNING ABSTRACT WORDS
  • Abstract words learned through inferences based on interactions and experiences.
MEMORY IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • Memory plays an essential role in remembering words, phrases, and sentences.
  • Types of memory involved include:
    1. Associative Learning: Links between sounds and objects.
    2. Episodic Memory: Recollections of events related to spoken language.
DEDUCTIVE VS. INDUCTIVE LOGIC IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • Deductive Logic: Applying general rules based on observations to produce speech.
  • Inductive Logic: Formulating rules from analyzing mature speech examples.